US Navy Cold War SeaWolf:  Designed to “Hunt” Russian Nuclear-Armed Submarines

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) The somewhat abrupt end to the Cold War generated a quick and potentially premature cancellation of the highly-capable Seawolf-class attack submarines initially slated to replace the existing fleet of Los Angeles-class boats. 

Although the service initially planned to build 29 Seawolf submarines, only three were actually built before the program came to halt due to budget constraints in the mid-1990s. The early termination of the Seawolf-class submarines inspired the birth of the now fast-progressing Virginia-class submarines, yet the Seawolfs themselves were engineered to be a paradigm-changing “jump” forward in capability beyond the Los Angeles submarines.

The Seawolf was larger than the Virginia-class boats and considered expensive at $3 billion per unit, yet its mission was clearly defined. Seawolfs were designed to, among other things, hunt and potentially destroy nuclear-armed Soviet Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarines, according to Harpoondatabases.com.

The Seawolfs were also built to track Soviet Akula-class attack submarines in “deep ocean” environments, according to research in the US Naval Institute’s Guide to Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet.

Seawolf-class hulls are constructed from HY-100 steel, which is stronger than the HY-80 steel employed in previous classes, in order to withstand water pressure at greater depths,” the US Naval Institute Guide states.

As very large boats, the Seawolf-class is able to carry as many as 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, something which might explain the rationale for why the U.S. Navy is building Virginia Block V attack submarines with an extra 80-foot section adding 28 more Tomahawks to the previously existing 14. Called Virginia Payload Tubes, these extensions are now being built into Block V Virginias, in part to replace the aging, yet heavily armed Ohio-class Guided Missile Submarines and Seawolf-class. 

There are other similarities between the Seawolf concept and upgrades to the Virginia-class boats, such as the addition of a Large Aperture Bow sonar system to Virginias, which appears somewhat aligned with the Seawolf’s larger “spherical sonar array, wide aperture array and new towed-array sonar,” as explained by Harpoondatabases.com.